We get asked a lot about what we actually do at Techquity. We have a page that lists four buckets of services. Each one is critical to the technology success of any company. And each one deserves more detail to lay out more specific potential engagement patterns. This series of posts will cover the four services and what we really do when we provide each one. First up, our Technology Assessment services.

Technology Assessment

In a technology assessment, a Techquity team member who formerly served as a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or VP of Engineering undertakes a detailed exercise to assess basic quality of software, cloud operations and tech teams. We may do this on behalf of a non-technical CEO, a Board of Directors, or an existing investor. We may also do this as part of a deep dive due diligence exercise for a potential acquirer or investor.

A Techquity technology assessment is a rigorous process. We review source code and system architecture with engineering leaders and team member. We study software development processes, look at technology choices, and suss out key development and engineering metrics to better understand whether the company’s technology team is performing well and outputting high quality software or products at an acceptable cost. We analyze technology choices and even software code for evidence of technology debt that will inevitably come due. That could be a choice of a cloud service that has a balloon pricing model or use of sub-standard and poorly documented code that works under light load but will inevitably break at scale. As part of this process, we verify that basic security and privacy practices are followed and help identify potential operational risks, bottlenecks or likely failure modes.

At the end of the Technology Assessment we deliver a report that summarizes the findings with severity of impact detailed (red, yellow, green) as well as recommendations to address the critical areas.